Healthy Date Oatmeal Cookies

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

1. Vanilla + datestop 8% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together218 recipes

   Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together35,032 recipes

   Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

3. Vanilla + flourtop 12% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together19,241 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together92,116 recipes

   Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together106,462 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Vegetable shortening

Provides fat that tenderizes the cookies and carries flavor.

Sugar

Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and spread.

Egg

Binds the dough and adds structure as it sets.

Oatmeal

Gives the cookies their chewy texture and hearty body.

Flour

Provides structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.

Baking soda

Reacts with the dough to lift the cookies and promote browning.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, vanilla, flour):

1. Raisinfits better
2. Blueberryfits better
3. Figfits better
4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, vanilla, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.